Quiara Alegría Hudes
Encyclopedia
Quiara Alegría Hudes is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 playwright and author best known for writing the book for the Tony Award
Tony Award for Best Musical
This is a list of winners and nominations for the Tony Award for Best Musical, first awarded in 1949. This award is presented to the producers of the musical.-1940s:* 1949: Kiss Me, Kate – Music and lyrics by Cole Porter, book by Samuel and Bella Spewack...

-winning musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 In the Heights
In the Heights
In the Heights is a musical with music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda and a book by Quiara Alegría Hudes. The story explores three days in the characters' lives in the New York City Dominican-American neighborhood of Washington Heights....

.

Personal life

Hudes was born to a Jewish father and a Puerto Rican
Puerto Rican people
A Puerto Rican is a person who was born in Puerto Rico.Puerto Ricans born and raised in the continental United States are also sometimes referred to as Puerto Ricans, although they were not born in Puerto Rico...

 mother, who raised her in West Philadelphia
West Philadelphia
West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Though there is no official definition of its boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Line Avenue to the northwest, Cobbs Creek to the southwest, and...

, where she began composing music and writing. She graduated from Central High School. She studied music composition at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

, where she earned her B.A., and playwriting at Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

, earning an M.F.A. She is a resident writer at New Dramatists and a previous Page 73 Playwriting Fellow. She is married and has a daughter.

Plays

In its original Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

 incarnation, In the Heights received the Lucille Lortel Award and Outer Critics Circle Award
Outer Critics Circle Award
The Outer Critics Circle Awards are presented annually for theatrical achievements both on and Off-Broadway and were begun during the 1949-1950 theater season. The awards are decided upon by theater critics who review for out-of-town newspapers, national publications, and other media outlets...

 for Best Musical; was named Best Musical of 2007 by New York Magazine and Best of 2007 by the New York Times; and garnered Hudes an HOLA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Playwriting from the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors
Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors
The Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors is an active arts service and advocacy organization. It is in the United States and dedicated to Hispanic artists and actors....

.

Hudes' first play, Yemaya's Belly, received the Clauder Prize, the Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting, and the Kennedy Center/ACTF Latina Playwriting Award and received numerous productions around the country. Her play, Elliot, a Soldier's Fugue, was a Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

 finalist in 2007 and has been performed around the United States, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

 and Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

. Her newest play, 26 Miles, will receive its world premiere at The Alliance Theatre in Atlanta in the 2008-09 season. She is currently writing a children's musical, Barrio Grrrrl!, for The Kennedy Center.

In 2010, she was named a Fellow by United States Artists
United States Artists
United States Artists is an independent nonprofit and nongovernmental philanthropic organization based in Los Angeles, California and dedicated to supporting the work of living American artists by the granting of cash awards, called USA Fellowships...

.

Hudes's first children's book will soon be published by Arthur Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.

On October 27, 2011, Quiara Alegría Hudes was the second female (and first Hispanic) to be inducted into Central High School's Alumni Hall Of Fame.

See also



External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK